Triple Toroid Attack - Donut Panic, Heavenly Donuts + Papa's Donuts

Three donut shops in a day...

The first being just a quick run to Donut Panic to pick up a trio for Astroboi and his BF...

Brothers Family Restaurant

Rain or shine, I knew I would have fun with my dear friend Astroboi...

for my belated birthday crawl, this time starting off in the neighborhood of Allied Gardens...

Breakfast at Brothers Family Restaurant was in order...

One year later, Cafe 21 Gaslamp birthday dinner + dessert @ Ocean Pacific Grille

One year later...

we were here at Cafe 21 once more...

Dessert @ Pappalecco, Kensington

Earlier this evening, Bert and I did the unthinkable...

We went out on a weeknight!  {{{Gasp}}} Shocker, I know, but hey, we wanted to live it up so...

Hawthorn Coffee, Nomad Donuts & Verbatim Books revisits with MFH

Across the street from Antique Row Cafe is one of my favorite coffee shops...

I hadn't been back since Valentine's and it was time for a revisit...

Antique Row Cafe with MFH + Prince sidewalk tribute chalk art

In keeping with my birthday month celebration...

I met up with my good friend MFH for breakfast in the Normal Heights area (although Yelp lists the location as "University Heights")...

to a restaurant neither of us had tried before on a stretch of Adams Ave known as Antique Row...

Chamorro Grill, coupon fail + Halo Halo revisit

Our first choice of dinner tonight was Cafe 21 on Adams. I had forgotten that they were remodeling so Bert and I headed down to Grantville...

to this stripmall located across from Kaiser Hospital on Zion...

Return to Ocean Pacific Grille

[Update - OPG is now closed as of December 2016. Sad panda]

I'd been meaning to post this much earlier but as you have it...

life gets in the way and thus, I have a huge backlog of posts...

A belated Valentine's dinner with the Educator GF's was pushed back to early March...

RIP Prince

Prince Rogers Nelson

June 7, 1958 - April 21, 2016

Liberty Public Market, Part 2: Wicked Maine Lobster & Mastiff Sausage Co. + Garden Fresh

While Bert was getting our sandwich (singular), I scoped out the seating area on the other side...

where the bigger LPM sign is. There is much seating out here on artificial turf. Take your pick, Adirondack chairs, bar height chairs, benches, tables, etc. It sure beat trying to find a seat inside the busy food hall...

Liberty Public Market, Part 1: Le Parfait Paris & The WestBean & more

We were both excited to check out the recently opened Liberty Public Market...

This would be the first of its kind in San Diego and what better place than the centrally located Liberty Station (the former NTC)...

Old Townhouse Restaurant + the OB Pier & Sunset Cliffs

En route to IB via the 5...

the worst of morning traffic seemed to be behind us...

Birthday Highlights 2016

Today, I turned one year older...

(getting on to the 5 from the 54 around 7:45 am, ouch)

and sharing my day off was my husband Bert...

Return to Cork & Craft and T-Pop Desserts

This past Sunday, we all went out for dinner at a nice place...

It was odd being out on a Sunday, but hey...

it was my birthday month and we wanted to be at a "fancy" place...

Fifth and last stop for my pre-Birthday Food Crawl - Cold brew two ways @ Dark Horse, Golden Hill + Star Wars Trivial Pursuit card fun!

Departing from Horton Plaza via the 94 brought us to Dark Horse on 25th...

I saw on Instagram that they had a rather novel preparation of cold brew...

which we all wanted to try...

Glass Beach, Fort Bragg

A mere ten minutes north of Mendocino is the town of Fort Bragg...

which has a very special beach we wanted to visit...

Pre-Birthday Food Crawl - Stop 4: Dessert @ Le Parfait Paris, downtown

The day started off sunny then got a tiny bit overcast, which was fine with me.

I find that even cloud cover makes for better photos (no harsh shadows as with sunlight). The sun would peek out now and then...

The ladies hadn't been here yet and I was curious to try something new...

Pre-Birthday Food Crawl - Stop 3: Brunch @ The Rose + cute shops (Gold Leaf & West Grove Collective)

Located diagonally across from the Shepard Fairey monk mural was our brunch spot...

in this older building with handpainted signage...

There is a gold rose on their door...

Pre-birthday Foodcrawl, Stop 2 - An appetizer at The Crack Shack

This next spot was not on my planned itinerary but we were so glad to "deviate"...

and give The Crack Shack a try!  It was merely a block away from our first stop at James Coffee...

Pre-birthday Food Crawl with the Educator GF's - First stop for caffeine and pie @ James Coffee!

The Educator GF's and I departed from my abode earlier this morning and were pretty much out the majority of the day...

No sign of rain (which would come later tonight). As early as it was...

parking on the northern end of Little Italy was actually quite painless...

Moody's Organic Coffee Bar + the Mendocino Masonic Hall

We'd bought a few chocolates next door at the Mendocino Chocolate Company...

Chocolate tastes better with coffee, so our next recourse would be at the next door coffee bar...

Mendocino Chocolate Company

We were at a different town every day of our road trip. From Point Arena, we made our way to Mendocino...

A quaint seaside town reminiscent of Cape Cod.  More on the building above later...

This would be a short rest stop before gearing up for where we would later spend the night...

We're not big into antiques, but we do like our chocolate and there was a shop here calling our name...

Beautiful views + the Pgymy Forest @ Van Damme State Park -

Meanwhile, at another rest stop up the coast...

we added more miles to our teenaged car as we made our way up...

Point Arena Lighthouse

Further up the coast was our next stop on our summer road trip...

It would be another lighthouse...

But what made this particular lighthouse stand out above the rest was that...

Sabuku Sushi

It was the day before Valentine's and we just enjoyed our coffee mocktails a few doors down at Hawthorn...

After waking past this painted utility box, we looked to the right...

and thought we would stop in for a few rolls...

The Milk Bar + coffee from Streetcar, 2nd dessert @ Mariposa & more...

During Spring break I took TC and  friend out to lunch and dessert. Lunch was pretty basic (sushi at Junz). TC had been wanting to go to this new place ever since reading "Ms. Darlene's" Zagat article about flavored milks.

Then when we saw photos from "Ms. Kirbie" and "Ms. Mary", we HAD to go...

Spring Break Road Trip 2016 - Day 7 Highlights

We were off at 6:30 am...

before the sun was even out...

Spring Break Road Trip 2016 - Day 6 Highlights

Our vacation was almost over, but not just yet...

In keeping with my "making the most of our morning" philosophy, we were up and early to try breakfast...

Spring Break Road Trip 2016 - Day 5 Highlights

The criss crossing telephone lines and street car lines in the Parkside neighborhood were a welcome sight to see once again...

Our fifth day brought us to the Outer Sunset...